S2 E15 Innovation in America: GLAVIN ID!

Greetings everyone, and welcome to Mighty Line Minute! And today I'm out in Solon, Ohio. I'm with the President of Glavin ID, Dan Glavin, and he'll be with you in a moment to tell you a bit about what they do, and what makes them so special in this field. Stay tuned!

Thanks Dave. I'm doing great. How are you? 

Oh, I'm wonderful, and thanks for taking time out with us today. So, I'd like to learn a little more about Glavin ID, as would everyone listening here. I know we're partners with Mighty Line, but what is it that makes Glavin ID is so special? Maybe starting with your history. It's a fascinating story! 

Great, thanks! Yeah, my parents started the business back in 1986 out of their house here in Solon. We started as just being a distributor for label printers and software, blank labels going into those machines. Over the years we've grown into a full-scale manufacturing company with 70% of the products that we make - that we sell - we make here in-house. And the other 30% are distributed product like Mighty Line and some of the label printers. Over the years we've done all sorts of different things in the business.

We had a sign company for a while, and kind of floated back into the industrial labeling / graphics world the last 10 or so years. And, ever since then, we've kind of been fine-tuning the machine, and trying go out and provide the best service we can for our customers. 

Well, you're certainly well known in the Northern Ohio area. How far is your reach? Who are you doing business with? 

So, we're doing business all over the country. We ship all over the world. Most of our business is here in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan. 

Wow, that's really great! You've had a number of acquisitions along the way, too.

Yeah, over the years we bought a bunch of different businesses, and folded them into our operations. And, those have really helped us expand our product and printing technologies here in house. 

You know, from folks I've talked to, you're known as being best-in-class. What is it that you do that's so special here at Glavin ID? 

I think a big part of it is our customer service. We're, really out here to try and help the customer, serve the customer, and have creative problem solving for their problems. 

Wow! Your customers, they range from small to big, or? 

Yeah, we do business all the way across the board from small startup companies, to large Fortune 500 manufacturing and everything in-between!

And, what about technology? I walked through your operation. I was pretty impressed with the class of the equipment that you've got here. You must hire some very good people. 

Yes. We have an amazing team. A great group of people here, operating lots of different manufacturing equipment. From printers, to laminators to die cutters, to routers and laser cutters, and engraving. We have a huge breadth of manufacturing technology here in-house. I think last count we had about nine different imaging technologies. Different ways that we can mark a product or print a product. And yeah, it's one of the things that really helps our customers diversify their product lines, and get the best options that they need.

What's one of the most unique technologies that you're using here? 

Oh, man. They're all pretty general. You know, I tell people around here, we're not doing rocket science or anything, everybody. There's lots of things that we can do that other people can do. The newest technology that we have is digital roll label, roll-to-roll, narrow-web format, digital printing for labels and tags and packaging labels. 

Cool. Cool. Well, you'll have to walk me through that area. I'd love to see that a little more closely. On the creative side, what you do is what everyone needs. How do you deal with the creativity that you need to use in this business?

I think it's two-fold. For us, I think one of our biggest strong points is our creative problem solving. We like to solve complex problems. We typically are the folks that take on the jobs that nobody else wants, or don't want to figure out. We love figuring those ones out. And then we also have a very talented team of artists and creative designers that can help get our customers really nice-looking products.

I love hearing that, "problem solvers." That's number one, solving problems for customers! Well - this is great news! I'm glad to see that you guys are moving along well. I noticed that you're now carrying some Mighty Line products, Mighty Line Tape and Mighty Line Floor Signs. 

Yeah, we started carrying the Mighty Line products a couple years ago and it's been a great, great addition to our product line. I just had a customer in here the other day and I was bragging about how we got the best floor tapes in the market. All the floor signs that anybody could ever need with all the durability that comes with your products is just second-to-none. We've sold every kind of floor tape under the sun over almost 40 years, and we've settled on a product that we'll probably never move off of, 'cause we know our customers love it, we love it, and it's just all around an amazing product. 

Awesome. That's a great testimonial. Well, what else would you like to say to the folks out there who are watching this for the first time? How would you like to sum up Glavin ID to the rest of the world? 

I think - like I said before - if you got a tough situation and you're not sure what kind of label, tag, sign, graphic you need, maybe it's a special flame retardant material, or static-dissipative or just something kind of out there and complicated. Those are the projects we love and those are the folks we love to work with. 

Cool. I love hearing a guy that talks about static-dissipative materials coming out of my safety background. But Dan, thank you for taking time with us today and, good luck with your business, and anything we can do to help support you, let us know. 

Thanks, Dave, appreciate it. 

Okay, take care. 

Have a good one!